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| 10
000 - 4 500 BC |
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The Early
Stone Age in Finnmark has traditionally been called
the Komsaculture, named after a mountain near Alta
where the first Early Stone Age remains were found.
However, most archaeologists today are critical towards
this concept, since it implies the presence of ONE
culture, ONE people, in the whole region of Finnmark.
Even though the archaeological research to a large
degree has focused on the Late Stone Age, we know
that the situation was far more complex also in the
earlier times.
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| Climate |
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30 000 years ago Finnmark
was covered by a heavy ice sheet. This sheet was part
of the large glacier that covered entire Scandinavia
and northern Germany. Around 13 - 14 000 years ago
the glacier had retreated from the coast of Finnmark,
and at around 11 000 years ago also the inner parts
of the fjords were bare. Between 9 000 and 7 000 BC
the glacier had disappeared also in the interior parts
of Finnmark.
In the period between early melting and complete disappearance
of the glacier the landscape was open, and the vegetation
was characterised by small bushes, shrubs and grass.
Eventually small forests of birch started to form,
and from 6 500 BC also pine grew at sheltered places.
Between 7 000 and 3 800 BC there was a period of warmer
climate. The median temperature was 1,5 - 2 degrees
C higher than today. The main part of the interior
of Finnmark and the inner parts of the fjords were
covered by pine forests. Pine and birch grew side
by side in the outer coastal areas.
During the Early Stone Age considerable changes in
the landscape took place. When the weight the glacier
had on the land disappeared, the land started to rise.
However, due to melting of the glaciers, the ocean
also markedly rose in the period between 6 400 and
3 800 BC. In some areas the land rose enough to equal
the rising of the sea, but along the outer coast,
where the land rose more slowly, several settlements
were eventually flooded.
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| Tools |
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| From
the earlier parts of the prehistory of Finnmark we almost
exclusively have found stonetools and remains from the
manufacture of stone tools. A few artifacts of bone
have been found at the later Early Stone Age site of
Gressbakken in the Varangerfjord. The stonetools have
been manufactured of many different types of stone,
and local types seem to have been preferred. Coarse
and fine quartsite are commonly found at sites from
Early Stone Age, but also rock crystal, chert and white
quartz has been used. Some flint, which is not a naturally
occuring type in this area, is also found. Through different
chopping- and pressuretechniques the rawmaterial was
shaped into tools like arrowheads, spearheads, knifes,
scrapers and axes. |
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| Settlement |
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| Since
the interior of Finnmark was covered by ice at the beginning
of Early Stone Age, we only know about coastal sites
from the earlier ages. The settlements are typically
situated in areas where there was good access to the
ocean from several sides. Most of the sites are open
settlements without any visble structures, and only
in a few places teltrings and foundations for shelters
are found. These indicate movement of settlement between
different sites. When the ice retreated, the interior
parts seem to have become more utilized. The earliest
visible dwellings appear, they are vague and without
clearly marked walls, which indicate the continuance
of high mobility. Towards the end of the Early Stone
Age the dwellings increase in number, size and visibility,
and this is concieved as the result of increased sedentarity.
The houses most probably resembled the traditional Saami
earthen houses, with walls of turf and a central hearth.
Towards the Late Stone Age the utilization of the interior
is more profound, and the pattern of settlement seems
to have consisted of moving between two or more seasonal
settlements, in addition to smaller hunting- and fishingcamps. |
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| At
Melkøya |
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| In
Sundjaera two phases from the Older Stone Age is documented.
One site was situated under a one meter thick layer
of stone, which covered a thin layer of prehistoric
turf. Under this layer a quarzflake was found. The stone
layer represents an old beach formed by storms, which
came to cover the original surface of turf. Based on
knowledge about changes in sealevel, we presume this
formation to have occured around 7 000 years ago. Consequently,
the turf and the findings beneath it must be older than
this. The other site is situated higher in the landscape,
about 22 metres above today's sealevel. The tools found
here, and the technology used in the manufacturing of
the tools, indicate activities that took place more
than 9 000 years ago. |
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